Defiance Men Complete Season Sweep of Mount St. Joseph

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Mike Floyd buried all six of his shots in the second half and scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the final period to lead Defiance College to the 83-64 win against Mount St. Joseph on Saturday afternoon. The victory was DC's fourth-straight over the Lions, as the Jackets have swept MSJ in each of the past two years.

Floyd had plenty of help in the victory, as the Defiance guards shredded MSJ's efforts to zone the Yellow Jacket offense by continually dialing it in from long distance to take over the game midway through the opening half. An 11-0 surge was highlighted by a pair of three-point shots from Heath Armstrong and a trifecta from Logan Wolfrum that flipped an 11-10 deficit into a 21-11 lead for DC.

After the Lions knocked in a trey of their own to stop the Defiance rally, Eric Stolly connected from beyond the arc to push the lead back to double digits with 9:11 left in the first stanza. The Jackets never looked back from that point on, as they rode the outburst to a comfortable, 36-28, lead at the intermission.

DC remained in control throughout the final twenty minutes of play, never letting MSJ get any closer than eight points the entire period. The Jackets blew the game open by steadily building a 64-47 lead with 8:32 left to play, before Floyd put the game on ice with nine-straight points. Floyd's spurt widened Defiance's advantage to a game-high 23 points at 81-58 and sent DC on its way to the 83-64 win.

Floyd and Sales were nearly unstoppable in the second half, combining to sink 11-of-14 shots from the floor and scoring 30 of DC's 47 points after the break. Sales scored all 13 of his points in the final stanza and added nine rebounds and two steals. Floyd ended with a season-high 23 points on three-of-four shooting from three-point territory, while adding four rebounds, four assists and one steal.

Kyle Tietje was a force off the bench for Defiance, logging 11 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in 23 minutes of work for his second collegiate double-double performance.

Tietje's double-digit rebounding total led the way for a strong showing on the glass for the Jackets, who saw 10 players pull down at least two boards on the way to piling up a 49-34 edge in rebounds.

Along with its domination of the glass, Defiance turned in one of its finest defensive showings of the season by holding MSJ to 29.4 percent shooting from the field for the second-lowest clip of the year by a DC opponent and the lowest mark by any Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference opponent against the Jackets.

Defiance (18-5, 9-5 HCAC) improved to 16-1 under second-year head coach Kyle Brumett when holding its opponent under 40-percent shooting from the field and climbed to 9-1 this season when allowing fewer than 70 points.

The Jackets will now turn their attention towards Bluffton (2-22, 2-13 HCAC), as Defiance will host the Beavers on Wednesday at 7:30 pm for its final home game of the regular season. DC's six-man senior class will be honored prior to the start of the game.